The price of progress: Streetscape delays have Grand Haven business owners worried in downtown Grand Haven

Johnny QuirinSeeing the future: Santo Stefano del Lago owner Nicholette Schroeder looks out at the construction along Washington Street in Grand Haven.GRAND HAVEN — Owner Nicholette Schroeder had been expecting business to drop a little this fall at her Santo Stefano del Lago shop, a downtown Grand Haven store specializing in gourmet foods, chocolates and confections, wines and giftware.

But since construction on the downtown streetscaping project began in mid-September and closed the first block of Washington Street to vehicle traffic, business at her 12 Washington Street shop has dropped by more than a third.

“I really did not think it would stop people as much as it has,” she said. “In general, we lost a lot of regular fall business as far as people going out and enjoying the fall time of year.

Johnny Quirin Open for business: A sign on the sidewalk along Washington Street states that stores are open for business.“I’m surprised people just stop dead in their tracks when they see fencing and they think they cannot get through.”

Schroeder is hoping the first block of Washington Street will be open by in time for “Light Night,” when Christmas lights are turned on and the holiday shopping begins.

But her wait could be longer.

Hit by an unusually rainy October and the complications surrounding installing new utilities, Grand Haven’s streetscaping project is about eight days behind schedule.

Construction on the first block of Washington Avenue between Harbor Drive and First Street began Sept. 14 with the goal of having the street snowmelt system, curbs and street surface in place by Nov. 13. That has been pushed back toward the end of November.

At that point, crews will focus on the second block of Washington Avenue between First and Second streets, which will be closed to traffic through winter and into the spring.

Project manager Ken Shingledecker said the delay is not totally unexpected and is not enough to force major revisions to the four-phase construction schedule that calls for the project to be completed in about 13 months.

“The game plans remains the same,” he said. “We’re focusing on Harbor Drive first, then the first block of Washington and then we’re going on to the First Street intersection and the second block.”

Shingledecker said once crews shift to the second block, the first block of Washington Avenue will reopen to traffic. The second block, however, will be closed to traffic throughout the winter, including the busy Christmas season.

“As far as we can tell, that will be the same for the second block,” he said. “The delay means we will be a bit further behind on the second block than we would be otherwise, but we still will be on the second block in December.”

The $5.6 million streetscaping project targets Washington from Harbor Drive to Third Street and, in part, calls for new water and sewer lines, new storm sewers, fire suppression lines to all buildings, new pavement and sidewalks with decorative brick pavers, trees and new street lights and traffic signals.

After the first phase is completed on the first block, crews will focus on Washington Street between First and Second streets to install new utilities, the snowmelt system and pavement.

Like the first phase, this section of Washington will be closed to traffic, but sidewalks will remain open. Depending on the severity of the winter, officials hope this phase will be completed by June.

Starting in April, crews return to the first block of Washington to install new sidewalks, decorative pavers, planters and streetlights. Work then will be put on hold until after Labor Day when streetscaping elements are installed on the second block and crews then begin utility and snowmelt work on the third block.

Once utility and snowmelt work is completed, crews install streetscaping elements on the third block. Then, all three blocks of Washington will receive a final pavement coating. The entire project is to be completed by Dec. 1, 2010.

A hallmark of the project is a snowmelt system that will pump heated water from the Sims II Power Plant to a network of pipes under Washington Avenue and adjacent sidewalks.

“It actually has gone well,” Shingledecker said. “The weather has been a bit of a problem, but we’ve had more of a problem with the difficulty in getting service lines into the buildings because of all of the other lines in the street. We had to do some real fancy connections and some unusual bends that we had not anticipated. It just took longer to accomplish.”

Dana Kollewehr, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority, said a major challenge has been minimizing disruptions to businesses lining Washington Avenue. She said the construction schedule was designed not to disrupt the busy summer season and to allow ample work time on the second block because it has more individual buildings for utility work than the first block.

She stressed that sidewalks along Washington Avenue will remain open in the construction areas to allow access to businesses. In most cases, shoppers will have access to businesses through front doors. Parking along Franklin and Columbus streets is not being disrupted.

City officials also are continuing to look at options to minimize the project’s impact on merchants. Columbus Street was converted into two-way traffic from Harbor Drive to Third Street to provide greater parking options to motorists and signs were installed alerting pedestrians that sidewalks remain open.

She also said her office has been working with merchants to publicize that all stores in Grand Haven will remain open and that access will be maintained.

“We’re trying to do all we can to hold activities and to bring people downtown,” she said. “No matter what’s going on in terms of construction, we trying our best to keep all buildings and sidewalks open and that there still is a great deal of parking available in parking lots.”

She said in many ways, the project has become a bit of an attraction.

“I’ve noted a lot of passersby or people eating in the restaurants watching all of the activity,” she said. “Because they did not do the sidewalks and the streets at the same time, it has been interesting to watch it and see all of the equipment going.”

The streetscaping project is being financed primarily through tax-increment financing, which is expected to raise $3.429 million and be paid back through future captured tax dollars from new investments in the area.

In addition, the city is chipping in $858,000 from sewer, water and street funds, of which about 20 percent is coming from a special downtown assessment district. The city also is receiving a $600,000 Michigan Department of Transportation grant and a $225,000 Michigan Department of Environmental Quality grant.

City officials say the improvements are long needed. Many of the water and sewer lines are more than a half-century old and the city’s lighting and landscaping have not been improved since the early 1980s.